Mitchell Blair
Anything can happen in the CFL. The longer a team stays in a game, the better chance they have of winning the game. All one has to do is look at Thursday’s game between the BC Lions and Montreal Alouettes to see that.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders are well aware that even though many are predicting them to walk over the 1-6 Edmonton Eskimos that they still have to show up and play solid football or be the victim of an upset.
The 6-1 Riders visit Commonwealth Stadium for the second time this season to take on an Eskimos team that is struggling mightily, but defensive back Tyron Brackenridge has seen what Edmonton can do and says his mates had better be ready to do what they do best.
“That team is getting better every week and their quarterback (Mike Reilly) threw for 500 yards last week. They are the best team in the league when it comes to explosive plays so we have to be ready or else.” Brackenridge said. “If we aren’t ready, they will take our heads off. They look like they are getting their game together and we need to be at the top of our game if we are to get the two points.”
Brackenridge adds that you don’t look at the record of the opposition when you play them. You look at something else.
“You don’t look at their record, you look at their film,” Brackenridge revealed. “The record doesn’t speak everything and doesn’t tell you the whole story. You look and see what they are capable of doing and how you prevent them from doing what they want to. You look at the players that they have and the weapons they possess and how we can best shut that down. You need to do that every week whether a team is having success or not.”
Head Coach Corey Chamblin is also preaching about over-confidence reminding everyone that you don’t play the game on paper.
“I can tell you right now that you have to play the game each and every week, “Chamblin told reporters after practice on Thursday. “If we knew that we were going to get the win before we left, we wouldn’t even bother going. You have to play the game and play it smart to be successful and that is what we aim to do. We aren’t even thinking about their record.”
The Riders offence struggled for much of last week and one of the guys who had his difficulties was Kory Sheets who was held under the 100 yard mark for the first time this season while being guilty of dropping some passes. Sheets is more than ready to make up for what happened last week and believes the entire offense is ready to make amends for a less than stellar effort against Montreal.
“We need to repay the defense for what happened last week,” Sheets said. “We need to pay that favour back by coming through and making it a little more comfortable for them. We stopped ourselves a lot of times last week and the defense bailed us out. It’s a team game so we have to come back and help them out this week.”
The two teams will meet in the second of four meetings between the two in a 2 o’clock kickoff Saskatchewan time. TV coverage will be provided from coast-to-coast by TSN with 620 CKRM bringing all the action into the homes of Rider Nation via radio. The longest and most comprehensive game-day coverage will begin at 11:30 am with “Roughrider Gameday” which can be seen live on Riderville.com with host Michael Ball. The “Rider Nation” pregame show goes at 1:00 followed by the play-by-play with Rod Pedersen and Carm Carteri.
GAME NOTES:
· Rider quarterbacks Darian Durant and Drew Willy have not thrown an interception this year in 221 attempts. That is the longest streak in club history
· Two CFL players have run for over 1000 yards in eight games, but no player has done it in the first eight games of the season. Kory Sheets is 81 yards away from doing that as he goes into today’s game with 919 yards.
· Chris Milo’s last play FG against the Alouettes was the first game in the CFL this season to go down to the last play before a winner was determined
· From 2007 untill today, when the Riders score 30 plus points in a game they are 41-5-1. When they score between 20-29 points, they are 18-20-0
